


Awake in Flames

by commas_and_ampersands



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, Sailor Moon R
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-30 01:44:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16755481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/commas_and_ampersands/pseuds/commas_and_ampersands
Summary: "You kissed her, Mamoru," Rei hissed, spitting.  "It makes all the difference in the world.""I did it to save her life," he said.  "Just because I don't - just because we're not together anymore doesn't mean I want her to die.""No, you just want her to suffer and waste away."





	Awake in Flames

**Author's Note:**

> Written August 2008; edits January 2018, particularly to Rei's last big monologue. I do love me some monologues.

Rei felt her knuckles crack and bruise as they rammed into the door.  The wood shook in its frame, the apartment number threatening to fall off its screws.  She glared, imagining she could see right through the number, through the wooden door, all the way into the apartment, her fury seeking out the man she'd come to find.  
  
When he didn't immediately appear, she punched the door again.  "Mamoru!" she shouted, heedless of his neighbors who were bound to see what she yelling about any moment.  "I know you're in there!  You don't have anywhere else to go."  
  
She heard shuffling inside.  This time she kicked the door.  "I'll stand out here screaming all night," she said.  "Or I could just burn it down."  
  
Then and only then did the door fly open.  He looked tired and thinner than she remembered, but not as tired and thin as Usagi was beginning to look.  "I was wondering which of you would show up."  
  
Rei snorted, pushing past him without benefit of an invitation.  "You're just lucky it was me.  I think Mako-chan was planning on just punching you, knocking you out, and leaving," Rei snapped, kicking her shoes off.  "Minako argued with me for ten minutes about it.  She was all for it, provided she could stay and yell when you woke up."  
  
Mamoru stumbled forward, retreating into the darkness of his living room.  "I'm just surprised you haven't come here sooner."  
  
"Ami said it was none of our business.  That we should be offering Usagi support instead," Rei explained, always two steps behind him.  When he sank into his chair, she stayed standing, wanting the advantage of height.  "But after tonight, even she couldn't stay out of it."  
  
"What difference does tonight make?"  
  
"You kissed her, Mamoru," Rei hissed, spitting.  "It makes all the difference in the world."  
  
"I did it to save her life," he said.  "Just because I don't - just because we're not together anymore doesn't mean I want her to die."  
  
"No, you just want her to suffer and waste away."  
  
The chair creaked as though he were thinking of springing to his feet.  "Don't tell me what I want!  Especially when you have no idea what—"  
  
"Well, all the evidence is pointing in that direction, Mamoru," Rei interrupted, hair and hands flying as she began to pace the length of the room.  "You left her.  You broke up with her for no reason any of us can figure out—"  
  
"None of you are in my head."  
  
"I don't need to be!" Rei countered, her knee crashing into an end table with only the moon and her rage to guide her path.  "Say what you want, Mamoru, but the fact remains that you had no reason.  She didn't do anything to drive you away, but you act like she betrayed you.  She saved your life; she brought you back from the dead; she gave you your memory; she brought you back from  _Beryl_.  But you're the one ending things.  You're the one acting like you have any  _right—_ "  
  
"Maybe I just don't love her anymore!" Mamoru shouted, his voice trembling with its own force.  "Did you ever think of that?"  
  
Rei's hands fell upon the arms of the chair, trapping him in place.  The room quickly filled with a fierce red glow, her power rising as quickly as paper could turn to ash.  She could see him now.  See the patches like bruises under his red-rimmed eyes and his hollowed cheeks.  She saw tear tracks she hadn't thought to look for at the door.  He was the very picture of anguish, she could see that now.

That didn't mean he deserved her mercy.  
  
"You forget that I know you," Rei said, her voice dangerously steady.  "You forget that I had you.  You didn't love me, and I certainly didn't love you, and that's fine.  I know what we were to each other.  But I was there, and I saw you with her.  You always looked for her in a room before anyone else.  You always made an effort to seek her out.  Then you acted like a jerk because you have the emotional maturity of a three-year-old, but still.  You don't needle her anymore, that's true, but you can't even manage to ignore her without making a big show of it.  And she's always the first one you look for.  Every time.  You haven't changed, and your feelings haven't changed.  Do me the courtesy of having a little respect for my intelligence."  
  
For the first time in weeks, he looked truly chastened.  “I… I didn’t—"  
  
“That’s because you’re an idiot.”  The light receded and so did she.  Her words were spent and her duty was done.  “Anyway, I'm not bitter.  It is what it is.  We were what we were.  And the best I can do for you now is to try and remind you who you are."

"I haven't forgotten."

"You tell yourself that."

Mamoru sighed and hung his head.  It was the closest she'd get to him admitting defeat.

Rei said, "I can’t force you to go back to her.  I wish I could, but I can’t.  It would be better for both of you if you did, but you're going to finish whatever crusade you're on no matter what I say.”

"Rei—"

“I can't do that, but I can do this.  I can tell you that if you ever,  _ever_  get her hopes up like that again….”  
  
Mamoru swallowed.  “I won’t.”  
  
“Good,” she said, walking to the door.  “Good night, Mamoru.”  
  
She opened the door.  It creaked and light from the outside filled the foyer.  The apartment number looked like it would fall soon.   
  
“I wish Makoto had come,” he said.  
  
Rei closed her eyes, her throat beginning to close.  “I know you do.”  
  
She shut the door and left him.


End file.
